S. Gannett seems to ular delight in the of order in China. it should please that China is} fant civil wars, that militarists force foreign vessels to accept them as non-paying! guests, or that lives and should be endangered iches of the Protocol 1901 is difficult to explain, except perhaps from the standpoint that the superficialities of China Jare so much easier to grasp than the real:
On Saturday we drew attention to Mr. Gannett's misrepresentaion of affairs in south China. He is not less misleading as regards the north, as witness another article in the "Nation" entitled "The Gunboat Policy Sheds Blood in China." Now, as matter of fact, here has been no shedding of blood in China by' foreigners by means of gunboats many years. That bare statement of fact perhaps does not impress Mr. Gannett in that he deals not with facts but with suppositions. He finds that Marshal Tuan Chi-jui shot down number of students who were demonstrating against him. He shot them down as similar demonstrators would be shot down' in New York, have been shot down in every city in the world. In Mr. Gannett's account: the explains nothing of the cause lof the shooting, nothing of the cause ofthe demonstration. His facile mind jumps on its general' anti-foreign tangent and suggests that the only cause for the demonstration was the protest lodged by the Powers against the firing on foreign. vessels by the Taku Forts. Mr. Gannett, in his obiter dicta manner, pooh-poohs the importance of such a protest, blames his own Government for supporting a protest against a flagrant breach of a treaty and then by some curious mental process reaches the conclusion that Tuan Chi-jui ordered the shooting to placate the foreigners, In a word, Mr. Gannett, not having found the foreign Powers in Peking sufficiently drastic to satisfy his expectation of an eye for an eye, produces a melodrama of his own invention and foists it upon a public, garnished with impressive-looking historical data to give his information the appearance of authority.
'The facts of the shooting are' well-known. Mr, George Hsu Chien, 2 member of the Communist Party of China, a radical, so red that even Marshal Feng Vu-hsiang could not tolerate him, organized a demonstration against Marshal Tuan in the hope of frightening Marshal Tuan to run away. He and his fellow-Communists were then to seize the Government and were to issue an ultimatum to Marshal Feng either to support them or they would effect a mutiny his ranks, It was a grand bluff planned by the Soviet Embass) and carried through by one of the least responsible of Communists. It failed. General Wu Kuang-hsin, brother-in-law Marshal Tuan and in charge of, the Chief Executive's guards, discovered the plot and took'
eps to protect the Government, whose servant he was. Most of, the universities in Peking had nothing to do with the demonstration, an itaportant fact that} should not be forgotten. When the students came howling Marshal Tuan, they were shot flown, as they had been warned they would be, though the palace guards did not fire until. many' of them had been wounded by, stones, They immediately seattered and the episode was closed, except that the Kuominchun government in Peking, itself not untainted by Red influences, arrested the ringleaders. Mr. Hsu Chien took refuge in the Russian Embassy, not daring to stand his ground on Chinese ferriter:
These are the facts of the situation, facts which must have been known to Mr. Gannett, as to every one else in Peking. Mr, Gannett's version is different. It is not a version; it is rather a personal interpretation of events from his vantage point at the capital. He explains:
Why to the Chief Executive? Because, in a sense, Tuan Chi-j has become a symbol of foreign domination, When Feng Vu-hsiang and his People's Army were at the height of their strength in December, about to oust the old man and institute a commission form of government in Peking, the Powers, alarmed, intervened. The plan of 2 commission form of government, rounded like a Soviet to their delicate ears. And-Feng, still a little afraid of the foreigner, yielded to their threats.
Now, what Mr, Gannett docs not seem to know is that no' oficial in China has had his aveer so mauled by the students jas Tuan Chi-jui, Tu 2919, he was Jat the height of his career and seemed to be in full control affairs in North China, The students attacked his Govern-
Tieng over the Vétsailles Treat; liew Shih-chang, who was then President, cleverly threw the on Tuan Chi-jui and his is, whicn was weakened and ultimately theowa oat of ofice on an anti-Japanes agitation, Ta 2925, Tuan in power. Througa no fi his; the May 30 situa li veloped. Again the placed his Government in ard' position, made it ificult for him, from a Chinese standpoint, to do anything to) save the country from extremism, involved his Government in a.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.